But it also seems like a slightly weird philosophical argument to me. As the Register article points out, there are plenty of autonomous weapons systems already available. So just which "robotic" or autonomous systems should the rule apply to? Only those that can reliably distinguish a human enemy in the first place? As "friendly fire" incidents continue to show, that can be hard enough for humans in the heat of battle.

Perhaps humans could be removed from the equation altogether. Then warfare would be like an epic episode of Robot Wars. I'd certainly watch.Will Knight, New Scientist Tech editor